Jazz musician and Pulitzer Prize winner Wynton Marsalis will be the University of Vermont’s commencement speaker this spring.
The 51-year-old father of a UVM student is the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
He is known as a bandleader, composer, and educator but first won acclaim for his trumpet playing, winning Grammys for both jazz and classical music in the same year, 1983.
The Burlington Free Press reports that he was the first musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1997 for his oratorio composition, "Blood on the Fields." He’s also written six books and performed in 30 countries.
His son attends UVM and will graduate in May.